Evening and grading machine.



Patented Oct-2|. I902.

No. mass;

' E. P. NICHOLS;

EVENING AND GRADING MACHINE.

(Application filed Jan. 15, 1902.)

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet l.

Q IE I48 "I m Q r g.

I III Q I grliql Patented Oct. 2|, I902. E. P. NICHOLS. I I EVENING'AND GRADING MACHINE.

Application filed Tan. 15, 1902.)

3 Shuts-Sheet 2.

J10 Model.)

Patented Oct. 2|, m2.

o- I, 2-,. Agpliuation filed Jan. 15-, 1902. (N0 Model.)

3 Sheets-Shaat 3.

za" 9L 7 THE Norms PETERS co. moTc-umu, WASHXNGYON D. c.

' UNITED STATES 'PATENT OFFICE.

ELMER P. NICHOLS, OF MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- l-IALF TO LEANDER A. COGSVVELL, OF'MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

-EVENING AND GRADING IVIACHI'NE.

EPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 711,585, dated October 21, 1902. Application filed January 1 5. 1902- Serial No. 89,823. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ELMERP. NICHOLS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Manchester, county of I-Iillsboro, State of New 5 Hampshire, have invented an Improvement in Evening and Grading Machines," of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

The purpose of my invention is to do b machinery what has heretofore required the judgment of skilled hand labor.

In certain kinds of heavy leather-such as employed for soles, taps, counters, and top 'liftsthe thickness varies considerably and it becomes necessary to even it and grade it, as it is called in the trade, meaningthereby the shaving off or cutting away of the thicker portions and bringing the leather, usually after it has been cut out into soles, taps, 850., down to a uniform thickness throughout the piece and thereafter sorting or grading the differentpieces as to thick- 2 5 ness. The usual way in which this has heretofore been done is for a skilled operator to take each piece of leather and set a gage of a machine by hand for such thickness as he estimates by his experience and judgment 0 corresponds to the thinnestportionof said piece of leather, a knife of the machine then shaving or cutting the leather down' to the level of said gage, and the resulting piece may or may not be correctly evened, as it 5 will be seen that it depends entirely upon the skill of the operator as he looks at and feels the leather, and after this evening has been done the grading, &c., are subsequently accomplished by hand, all these procedures, re- 40 quiring unusual skill, being necessarily slow and expensive and usually more or less inaccurate. AccordinglyI have devised a machine which itself does all the work explained above and preferably accomplishes the entire operation automatically.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention the leather is simply fed into the machine and feelers engage the leather at one or more points for automatically adjusting a gage to the thickness of the thinnest spot detected by any of the feelers, and the leather,

continuing on its way, is then evened or shaved down to a uniform thickness corresponding to said'thinnest spot, and finally the thickness of each piece isgaged or measured and marked.

Further details and advantages and the-operation'and construction of; my invention will be more fullypointed out inrthe course of the following description, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, in which I have illustrated a preferred embodiment of the invention, and the latter will be more particularly defined in the appended claims, also forming a part of this specification.

In the drawings, Figure l is a vertical 1ongitudinal sectional view taken on the line 1 1, Fig. 2, partly broken away for convenience of illustration. Fig.2 is a top plan view of the machine, with the pressure-plates for holding the work on the feeding-chain omitted. Fig. 3 isa vertical transverse sectional view taken on the line 3, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a broken detail, in side elevation, of a portion of the gage-adjuster. Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view thereof on the line 5. 5, Fig. 4.

The work is fed in at the right-hand end of the machine, viewing Figs. 1 and 2, the feeding mechanism herein shown comprising a lower feed-roll 0., suitably journaled at its ends in the frame A of the machine, and an upper presser-roll at, whose journal-boxes a are vertically movable in guides a and normally held with a downward pressure by springs a, being provided at one end with a gear a meshing with a pinion a of a stub driving-shaft a carrying fast and loose beltpulleys a of. The feed-roll a, is also provided with sprocket-teeth a for engagement with a sprocket feed-chain a, provided with feed- 0 ing-teeth at here and there along its length, the sprocket-chain a passing over a sprocketidler a, so as to bring the teeth of the sprocket-chain into feeding position above the bed (1 of the machine. 5 At some convenient place in the machine, herein shown as at its rear end, I provide a cutting-knife a, herein shownas adj ustably held by clamping-bolts a and set-screws (L in a block or cross-piece a of the frame. roo Gaging-rolls cooperate with this knife and are shown herein as comprising a yielding lower or presser roll a held upwardly by a spring a and an unyielding top or gage roll 0, whose journal-boxes a carry a pressurebar extending lengthwise of the'roll to be engaged by gage-arms a a fast on a rockshaft a The roll a is supported in guides at at its opposite ends and provided with springs n for holding it firmly against the arms a 0, The roll a is driven by a gear (L30 in mesh with the pinion a, and suitably journaled in the frame of the machine beneath the bed is a shaft or, having a pinion n at one end in mesh with the pinion afland at its other end a pinion a meshing at opposite sides with a gear a for driving the lower gage-roll a and a gear 0, for driving the feed-roll a.

Conveniently located between the feed-rolls and gage-rolls I provide one or more feelers or gage adjusters, there being herein shown for convenience of description and clearness of illustration two of these feelers b I), each in the form of a roll or wheel pivoted, respectively, at the lower end of a suitable operatin g mechanism, shown as a rack-bar Z9 engaging two pinions 1) 6 whose shafts h lf are journaled in a cross-bar 12 in which also the racks are mounted, and connected at the right-hand end of the machine to the left gage-adjusters or guard-sets b b (shown in detail in Figs. 4 and 5) by means of slotted arms or cranks Z2 I). These gage-adjusters slide on the opposite sides of a ratchet b pivoted at Z9 to the free end of the arm 03 being guided in any suitable manner on said ratchet, as by tongues and grooves b and cooperating with said ratchet are pawls b 5 pivotally mounted in a pawl-carrier Z2 vertically guided at D at the side of the frame and connected to a wrist-pin b of aface-plate I), carried by a sleeve Z3 loose on a shaft I9 The shaft b is driven by a band-wheel Z2 and band B from a band-pulley n on the drive-shaft and carries a clutch shown as a notched wheel I), fast on the shaft, to be engaged by a dog I1 normally held by a spring I) toward the clutch, and pivoted at 6 to an arm 6 fast on the sleeve 12 so that when the clutch is locked with said sleeve the latter rotates and operates the gaging mechanism. The dog 11 isnormally held out of engagement with the clutch by a notched detent b, pivoted at Z9 to the frame and held upwardly by a spring Z9 said detent being operated automatically by any suitable means, as bya plunger I), pivotally connected to a bell-crank U adjustably pivoted in the bed of the machine at Z2 for different lengths of leather pieces, and having its free arm projecting upwardly in the path of the leather pieces, so that as a piece is fed into proper position on the bed of the machine when its front end strikes the bellcrank b it will thereby depress the same and release the dog (1 so as to cause the automatic operation of the connected parts.

My lnvention also includes an automatic grade-marking device, herein shown as ccmprisinga marking-wheel 0, provided on its periphery with the proper designations corresponding to the various thicknesses, according to the current trade-scale, said wheel being mounted on a 'shaft 0', supported at its ends in swinging journals 0 0 the latter carrying a rack 0 engaging a pinion c on said shaft at one end and at its other end being connected to a bell-crank c, operated by a link 0 extending from the arm (L25, for properly rotating the wheel, so as to bring the correct stamping number in proper position. The wheel is depressed bya rod 0 connected at one end to a projection c of the swinging journal 0 and at its other end engaged by a cam-lug e on the sleeve I2 The rod 0 is made yielding in any suitable manner, as by a spring 0 for the purpose of permitting the wheel 0 to accommodate itself automatically .to different thicknesses of leather.

In operation the uneven stock is inserted between the rolls a a and is positively fed forward thereby and by means of the feedchain a and as it passes beneath the feelers or gage-adjusters Z) Z) they follow the unevennesses of the leather and correspondingly shift the guards or ratchet-adjusters, which shield the ratchet I), downwardly, as best shown in Fig. 4, thereby limiting to a corre sponding extent the point of engagement therewith of the pawl-carrier, so that when the dog 19 is tripped by engagement of the forward end of the leather with the tripping device or a bell-crank b on the table the sleeve Z9 is caused to rotate with the shaft b thereby at once pulling downwardly upon the pawl-carrier b and as soon as either pawl b or 11 thereof is permitted to engage the ratchet I) further downward movement of the pawl-carrier acts through the ratchet to pull downwardly on the arm (1, and lower the gage-roll at. This adjusts the gage-roll at precisely that distance above the edge of the knife a which corresponds to the thinnest spot of the leather as determined by one or the other of the feelers b b, and as the thicker portions of the leather pass between the rolls a a the former yields so as to permit the extra thickness of the leather to be shaved off by the knife, thereby reducing the entire leather piece to a uniform thickness corresponding toits thinnest part. Meanwhile the marking-wheel c has been rotated to correspond to the gaged thickness of the leather by reason of the fact that it is rotated to an extent corresponding to the downward movement of the arm a said rotation being effected by the link 0, bell-crank c and rackbar 0, and as the leather gets along beneath said wheel 0 the lever is suddenly brought down forcibly by means of the cam-lug 0 which engages the crooked end of the rod 0 the result being that the leather is stamped to indicate the precise thickness to which it has been gaged by the machine and is being dressed or cut.

or detect the thin portion or portions of the leather and set the gaging mechanism to correspond thereto, so that when the leather reaches the cutting mechanism, of'whatever kind it may be, said mechanism will remove all stock over and above the thickness to which the gaging mechanism has thus been automatically set.

Preferably the marking of the pieces takes place as they pass from the feeding-in end of the machine to the cutting end, although it may be located elsewhere, and it may be of different construction, as the purpose is simply to designate or distinguish the dififerent grades of leather,so that all those of one grade can be distinguished from those of different grades or thicknesses.

I do not intend tolimit myinvention to the specific details herein shown, (although for usual purposes the particular form of mechanism in which I have illustrated my invention is preferable,) as I am aware that many changes and substitutions may be resorted to within the spirit and scope of my invention.

However, besides claiming my invention broadly in terms commensurate with what I regard as novel and as constituting my general invention 1- have limited certain of my claims to more or less of the details of the present embodiment.

In practice it is essential that the pieces of leather being fed by the chain'and impaled upon the points thereof be kept down upon the .chain While the latter acts to feed the material through the machine. To effect this, I provide the machine with suitable yielding pressure-plates, one of which is represented at h. These plates may be sustained in any suitable manner with relation to the bed so that they may yield and adapt themselves to the thickness of material being carried by the feeding-chain.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. A machine, comprising mechanism for eveningor cutting off the thicker portions of uneven leather, and automatic means for adjusting said mechanism to the thickness of the leather at its thinner portions.

2. A machine, comprising mechanism for evening or cutting off the thicker portions of uneven leather, automatic means for adjusting said mechanism to the thickness of the leatherat its thinner portions, and automatic leather put through the machine.

3. A machine, comprising mechanisu 'for evening or cutting ofit the thicker'portions of' uneven leather, and automatic means for designatingthe various thicknesses to which different pieces of leather are cutby said evening mechanism.

4. A machine, comprising cutting mechanism for evening an uneven piece of leather, feeding mechanism 'for feeding the leather thereto, and automatic gaging mechanism for setting the machine to out the leather to the given thickness to which it is desired to be reduced.

5. A machine, comprising a cutter for evening an uneven piece of leather, feeding mechanism for feeding the leather thereto, a feeler adapted to follow the unevennesses of the leather, a gage roll or device for limiting the thickness to which the. leather is to be cut, means for moving said gage device toward and from said cutter, and means connected with said feeler and said moving means for controlling automatically the extent to which the gage device is moved.

6. A machine, comprising a cutter for removing the thicker portions of an uneven piece of leather, a gage device for holding the leather at a predetermined distance-from said cutter, and means for positively adjusting said gage device toward and from said of the leather through the machine,and means actuated bythe passage of the leather for operating said gage-adjusting means.

8. A machine, comprising a cutter for removing the thicker portions of an uneven piece of leather, feeding mechanism for feeding the leather thereto, a gage device, means for adjusting said gage device, a feeler automatically regulating said adjustmentto the thickness required,a mechanism for causing said adjusting means to operate, said mechanism being set in motion by the passage of leather, and being adjustable for difierent lengths of leather.

9. A machine, comprising a cutter for removinga portion of the leather, a yielding roll on one side thereof, and an unyieldingrollon the other side thereof, the latter constituting a gage device and being provided with means for positively moving it toward and from the cutter, and automatic means for regulating the extent of movement according to the leather passing through the machine.

10. A machine comprising a cutter for re- 9'5 cutter, consisting of a pawl and ratchet, a I

moving a portion of the leather, a gage device, means for adjusting said gage device, a work-support, a feeler movable above said work-support and adapted to be raised and lowered by the passage of the work, and a guard actuated by said feeler for controlling the operative movement of said gage device by its adjusting means.

11. A machine, comprising a cutter for removing a portion of the leather, a gage device, means for adjusting said gage device, a work-support, a feeler movable above said work-support and adaptedto be raised and lowered by the passage of the work, and a guard actuated by said feeler for controlling the operative movement of said gage device by its adjusting means, a marking-Wheel, means for rotating said wheel to correspond to the extent of adjustment of the gage device, and means for engaging the wheel with the leather.

12. A machine, comprising a cutter for removing a portion of the leather, a gage device, a lever for moving said gage device toward and from the cutter, longitudinally-movable means for actuating said lever, said means being made in two parts adapted to be locked together at times for movement, a feeler, and means actuated thereby forgoverning the locking together of said two parts for controlling the point of engagement of the pawl with the ratchet.

14. A machine, comprising a cutter for removing a portion of the leather, a gage device, a lever for moving said gage device toward and from. the cutter, a ratchet, a pawlcarrier, means for reciprocating said pawlcarrier, a plurality of feelers, and a guard for each feeler movable along said ratchet in the path of said pawl-carrier for controlling the point of engagement of the latter with the ratchet, said feelers being placed to engage the leather at different points, and said pawlcarrier engaging and moving said ratchet according to the thinnest portion detected by said feelers.

15. A machine, comprising a cutter for removing a portion of the leather, a gage device, a lever for moving said gage device toward and from the cutter, adjusting mechanism for automatically moving said lever according to the thickness of the leather,a m arking-wheel provided with gage-marks for stamping the leather, means connected with said lever for rotating said Wheel to bring the proper gage-mark opposite the leather, indicating the thickness to which the gage device has been set, and means for bringing said wheel into contact with the leather.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ELMER P. NICHOLS.

\V itnesses:

GEO. W. GREGORY, EDITH M. STODDARD. 

